Many of us breathed a sigh of relief last Wednesday as Joe Biden was inaugurated and the Trump era finally ended. It was heartening to hear Biden to invoke racial justice in his inaugural address with unprecedented directness (mentioning white supremacy!), and it was wonderful to see National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman recite her poem “The Hill We Climb” acknowledging an ugly history and providing hope for a way forward. Yet the role the Democratic Party and, historically, Biden himself have played in upholding white supremacist institutions and policies (including the lack of acknowledgment of being on stolen Indigenous land throughout the ceremony) make this moment more a starting point than a victorious finale. We will need to hold Biden and the Democrat-led Congress accountable and work hard to push them in the direction of racial justice.
The executive orders Biden signed on his first day in office provide some hopeful jumping-off points. Rejoining WHO, initiating mask mandates, and organizing vaccinations can help control COVID, which disproportionately affects BIPOC. The Muslim ban was rescinded, DACA was bolstered, the border wall construction was halted, the 1776 commission was cancelled, and the eviction moratorium may be extended through September. On Friday, Biden was said to be planning a federal workforce minimum wage increase to $15.00 an hour.
It will still be necessary, however, to keep the pressure on the Biden Administration. Student loan debt cancellation, which would have a significant impact on Black Americans, is in need of a further push. Biden's plan is a good start, but Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Senator Elizabeth Warren, and Senator Bernie Sanders have been among the leaders of a push for complete loan cancellation. An aide to Senator Warren stated that student loan cancellation would have the biggest impact on the racial wealth gap of any legislation enacted since the civil rights era.
Pressure is also needed to extend the COVID-19 aid package. While much can be done via executive order, presidential power has its limits. Much of the work needs congressional support and, by extension, our pressure on congress. New Yorkers are well aware that having Democrats at the helm is not a panacea. Again, the Democrats at large (and the new president in particular) have done much to uphold white supremacy. Change is possible, but only if we fight for it.
Hopefully a Democratic president who claims to stand for racial justice and a Democratic congress will grant us the space to push all that much harder for a more just and equitable nation.
In solidarity,
SURJ NYC